Skills for Life
Dear Village Family,
This week is our second assessment period for our Prekindergarten through 8th-grade students. Our prekindergarten students will take the Renaissance STAR while our Kindergarten through 8th Grade assesses utilizing NWEA MAP Growth. Both assessments provide our educators and you as a family a view into your child’s development, including areas of strength and support. Along with our student portfolios and progress reports, these assessments serve as another point to triangulate and map your child’s learning journey.
Many times students experience an increased level of stress during assessment days. Core to our philosophy and approach is working with students on how they view, prepare, and perform during assessments.
The IB approaches to learning skills (ATL) are grounded in the belief that learning how to learn is fundamental to a student’s life in and out of a school context. One of those skills is Self-management Skills: The ability to set goals, manage time and tasks effectively, and manage your state of mind, self-motivation, resilience, and mindfulness.
The eight principles of CREATION form a pathway to develop the skills for self-managed behavior. And a behavior, when repeated in the same situation over and over again, and reliably rewarded, becomes automatic, a habit.
So this week our family is working on:
- Getting plenty of rest
- Spending more time together as a family
- Eating meals that properly fuel us
- Taking family walks in the morning or the evening
- Spending time in worship and pray
Join us this week, and together, let’s work with our children to build their skills and create habits for life-long success.
In His Grace,
Derek and Nalani Cummings
